Fed up with the drunken debauchery of a made-up drinking holiday, a town-and-gown partnership in State College has agreed to pay $170,000 to stop 34 businesses from serving alcohol Saturday.

The $5,000 payment to each bar and restaurant that agreed not to serve is part of an effort to curb dangerous drinking on the popular "State Patty's Day" weekend, created in 2007 by Penn State students. St. Patrick's Day fell during spring break that year, prompting students to celebrate early, donning green shirts and downing green brews.

Even though students have been on campus to celebrate the actual St. Patrick's Day in subsequent years, State Patty's Day stuck, becoming an annual attraction for students from other colleges — and a destructive weekend for the small borough.

"These 36 hours, which go from 6 p.m. Friday to 6 a.m. Sunday, are our busiest 36 hours of criminal activity for the year," State College police Chief Tom King said in a news release. "That's busier than home football game weekends."

Police made 222 criminal arrests on State Patty's Day weekend in 2012, including 52 for underage drinking, 21 for public urination and 14 for drunken driving, according to the department. The majority of those arrested were students from other colleges.

"The $5,000 doesn't come close to covering the profits of that day, but it's worth it," bar owner Duke Gastiger said. "This brings State College a black eye."

Gastiger, owner of The All-American Rathskeller, said he's perfected the art of managing chaos over the past 28 years. But even he couldn't believe what State Patty's Day did to downtown State College, just across the street from campus.

Students, many of them from other schools, were drunk by 10 a.m. and the streets were full of police arresting staggering people, he said. The town had become so overrun with out-of-towners looking to take advantage of the contrived holiday that his regular customers stayed away.

While some bars opened early and promoted the holiday during its beginning years, others have since closed on State Patty's Day. Gastiger said he tried limiting the number of people in his bar, served no shots on State Patty's Day and charged everyone a cover fee that could be used for food only. But nothing worked.

"This abuse of alcohol has become epidemic, and it rears its ugly head on this day in particular," Gastiger said.

Many downtown bar managers declined to comment, saying they were instructed not to talk.

"I think everybody gets the idea behind this," said Todd Henry, general manager of Chili's Bar and Grill, which will serve food but no alcohol. "It just creates a lot of problems none of us needs."

Frustrated students quickly took to social media to complain about the new safety measures, posting comments on a State Patty's Day Facebook page, which has nearly 12,000 "likes." For many students, it's a chance to catch up on partying after THON, the annual weekend-long dance marathon that raised $12 million this year to fight pediatric cancer.

Kelly Hammond, a Penn State senior from Allentown, said the cause is admirable, but she thinks students will still find ways to celebrate the "holiday," like drinking in downtown apartments.

The event should eventually be abolished, said Guilherme Meggiolaro, a student from Brazil, but until then bars are the only "safe and supervised" places to drink.

About $155,000 used for the payments comes from parking fees from previous State Patty's weekends, said Damon Sims, the university's vice president for student affairs. The rest comes from contributions from State College and Penn State. No tuition, state appropriations or donations were used, Sims said.

There's been no discussion yet about whether the partnership will pursue this plan in future years, Sims said.